House of Water
Baltimore, MD

Located in Roland Park, America’s first garden suburb, this two-acre landscape surrounds a 1900s Tudor-style home undergoing a modern architectural renovation. The updated design opens the house to the garden, strengthening interior-exterior connections and setting the tone for a landscape that bridges eras. A floral motif found in the home’s original leaded glass windows— tulip, rose, poppy, aster, violet, daffodil, and iris—provides a conceptual thread, with each flower finding a home in the planting design and tying the landscape back to the memory of the house.

At the heart of the project is a deep respect for memory, history, and transformation. Mature canopy trees are carefully preserved, while rustic elements and romantic gestures are balanced with refined interventions. The client is returning to the home where she and her late husband raised their children. She envisions this garden as her “swan song,” a deeply personal landscape full of joy, reflection, and delight. A Pisces herself and drawn to water, she wanted the landscape to carry a strong aquatic presence. Her late husband, a Leo, is honored through the use of enduring materials, large glacial erratics, sculptural stone placements, and a dedicated Leo Garden anchored by a stone water feature. The result is a layered sequence of six unique water elements, including a 150-foot-long koi pond, a tranquil lily garden, and a reflective water wall, each designed to evoke emotion, movement, and memory while grounding the garden rooms.

Collaborators
Sill Engineering Group
Cobb Architectural Engineers
Zoe Feldman Design